Letters

Thanks much for the short piece on Brian Ellis (“Boundless,” Music, April 1). One thing I have learned from decades of reading music journalism is that performers who publicly disrespect the Beatles are often trying to overcompensate for their own deficiencies, so I suspect that you have saved me some time and trouble. If nothing else, referring to the most popular and successful musician of our age (Paul McCartney) as a writer of “grandma songs” suggests a lack of good judgment on Ellis’s part, but it probably also tells me all I need to know about this immature artist.

Markel Tumlinvia email

Twister Sister

I just want to give the Reader a big thank you for bringing the brain-twister puzzles back (“Brainstorms”)! When I opened the paper to look at the crossword, I got a pleasant surprise; actually, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The anticipatory feeling I get with my weekly Reader is back.

Thank you, thank you.

Mary Bucarovia email

Quote, No Quote

I wanted to let the editor, Jim Holman, know that I really did not appreciate, nor did all of the people that I know appreciate, the article about Pastor Jim Garlow (“S.D. on the Q.T.,” March 25). That was extremely misleading. That was very misleading in that you had quoted everything from him. There was nothing on that page or in that article — this was the article regarding Prop 8.5 — to say that this was a joke or a satire. And actually, there could be lawsuits against the Reader for doing that. It is appalling to me that you did that and that you allowed that.

Vicky C.Lemon Grove

Crockery

Regarding the article by Chad Deal, “The Wild Wild East” (Cover Story, March 25). You talked to a Mr. Steve Scaroni, who is also a harvest contractor. He says that money is not the issue. He also said he could double the wages he offers in the United States and still come up shorthanded. What a crock!

An article in the San Diego Union-Tribune published Friday, February 23, 2001, written by Diane Lindquist, states that in Mexicali, “At the peak of the 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. commute, as many as 5,000 Mexicans walk through the pedestrian gates each hour. They have U.S.-issued permits, which allow them to work days in the United States and go home to Mexico at night. But even with this abundance of workers, Imperial Valley growers” — like Mr. Scaroni — “are leading the call for more foreign workers.”

The Union-Tribune article says that “as many as 10,000 people” are waiting in Calexico, California, parking lots, early in the morning, hoping for work. “Scaroni offered explanations for why there appear to be more workers than jobs most mornings,” the article continued. “They probably don’t want to work in the first place.… A lot come for the socializing, to see their friends.” Another crock!

He is also quoted as saying, “I’d probably skip to El Salvador because they are great people and hard workers.”

To Mr. Scaroni, please double the wages now, and you will see how many people will go and work for you. Or is that another crock you are throwing?

Name WithheldNational City

Wait A Minute, Man

Dear Chad, I was extremely disappointed to see “The Wild Wild East” as a cover story in the Reader (March 25). The fact that you intended to positively feature a group of racist extremists such as the Minutemen is quite mind-boggling and disappointing, given all the other activities that are going on in our San Diego communities. The Minutemen are racists that despise immigrants, period, and do not differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants, despite their arguing the contrary. For example, Brandon mentions that Border Patrol doesn’t question his presence in the desert because he is a “gringo,” implying the that color of one’s skin determines nationality?

Officer Rosas was a Latino Border Patrol agent. I guess if he had not worn a uniform he would have been treated differently by both the Minutemen and his own agency. How about feature the good doings of the Border Patrol instead of Minutemen? These are exactly the causes why our immigration system is broken: prejudices!!! These prejudices don’t let us move forward as a country nor acknowledge the broken immigration system, only prolong it. The majority of “illegal” immigrants actually come in legally but overstay their visa term. Others who try to come in legally better be ready to die waiting in line for an answer.

If a Chinese national enters our country by boat without a visa, he is an “illegal.” If a Cuban enters our country by boat without a visa, then he/she is welcomed with legal permanent resident status and eventually U.S. citizenship under our “wet feet, dry feet policy,” and nobody seems to throw a fit about it. Don’t we owe a whole lot more to China than to Cuba?

I guess this is why Tony Dolz, a Cuban immigrant and one of the founders of the Minutemen Project, feels he has the right to speak out against illegal immigration. Fortunately, there was a policy in place to welcome him with open arms and that doesn’t limit the number of Cubans coming to America nor require them to wait almost a couple of decades to be cleared by the Department of Homeland Security.

Let’s stop the hate rhetoric that has made us unable to move forward on this issue for decades. History shows that people have migrated since mankind has existed. In the world, extreme nationalism has only proven to be disastrous (world wars, etc.), and this is what the Founding Fathers ran away from in the first place — they were immigrants too?!?! “Illegal immigrants” didn’t exist back then because Native Americans didn’t deem them illegal.

"I do agree that Blanca is a choice food lovers should make if they are in Solana Beach. However, something a little less wordy would make me more inclined to dine there again."

Huh? Really? Aside from your strange 'inclination' of eating only at restaurants briefly reviewed, you appear to have not yet developed a taste for the wonderful deliciousness and fun of Naomi's food metaphors. Try picking up some food writing, and see if you can whet your appetite with the wickedly wordy MFK Fisher...

The suck is two-fold: First, the Reader marked a disclaimer in the on-line link for S.D. on the Q.T. Second, the columns are conspicuously gone.

The sad is obvious: The intellegence level of some readers seems to be whatever is equivalent to that of a small, gullible child.

I remember in high school I so thoroughly enjoyed National Lampoon (spun off originally from Harvard Lampoon). P.J. O'Rourke was the editor in its early years, John Hughes wrote for them as well as other talents.

By the late '70's the magazine was beginning to decline, but one mainstay, an perhaps my favorite feature, was their Letters From the Editors section. The magazine began to publish less and make more films until by the '90's it was no more (only National Lampoon, Inc. remains, ostensibly for film rights and name recognition).

"The sad is obvious: The intell[i]gence level of some readers seems to be whatever is equivalent to that of a small, gullible child."

Exactly. With the exception that small gullible children are at least eager to learn.

I tried to help out by writing a blog that patiently brought to the surface the double nature of Mencken's figurative language, but looks like San Diegans just can't take anything more figurative than Dr. Seuss--

--oh wait--Dr. Seuss's metaphors were political in nature too! --and none too kind to figures in power of the last several decades. Were the Reader to reprint his work, even more a**holes would clamor for plain disclosure--because now we'd be dealing with an even more difficult set of translations of subtext--between image and word.

Instead, we encase these metaphorically rich images in prophylactic glass over at Geisel, where people can enjoy the cute drawings from a safe distance--protected from their subversive content on the stupidity of the American government and its military war machines...

I'm not sure if it's just San Diego, maybe it's everywhere. People are supposed to be smarter now than ever before, but it seems that they are - among other things - less tolerant; therefore less apt to appreciate good parody or satire. At least, this is apparently so.

After all, Green Eggs and Ham is obviously a contrived and pointed political story about the South and slavery ;)

A couple of years ago, right here in Tijuana, I attended an art exhibit at the Tijuana Cultural Center. It was wonderful, except for the adults. They had, outside in the hall behind glass cases, amazing drawings from school children posted proudly for all to observe.

I hope those kids have a chance to fix this mess we made for them. Judging by the drawings, humanity has a chance.

Ahh!! That's so funny!! The absolute worst word you could misspell except for misspell, which I have "mispelled"!! ;D!!

Refried, I'm not so sure it is people being less tolerant, but that they do not recognize satire at first and are then embarrassed and not able to laugh at themselves after they've expressed their outrage. People take THEMSELVES too seriously and threaten to sue, which exposes them as being really, really dumb.

Perhaps, Ms. Grant. Maybe it isn't tolerance, I guess I have a tendency to try to assign a reason to it, but I have to admit, I'm at a loss to explain it otherwise. What do we do? Where do we go from here?

AG, I saw that SNL bit when it came out, epic performance. And that documentary looks great! I have no idea if I can find it here in Tijuana (you would be surprised at what actually CAN be found here!), but I'm looking for it. I imagine it would even appeal to eggheads like myself, presuming that Sarah Palin hasn't led a movement to get it yanked off of the store shelves.

"Oh please. The world isn't coming to an end because only eggheads get SD on the QT."

Cuddle, I trust you understand that we are angsting about the much larger phenomenon, the problem of education in this country. It's a hackneyed example but so handy--go to Europe and jump in a cab. Your average cabbie will be able to argue about the literature of his country's most appreciated authors. Sorry to go all quasi-post-Marxist on ya, but...

In other words, said cabbie will demonstrate that he has had a better primary education, and a better education in all of the humanities, than most CEOs in this country. We are apparently proud of our cultural starvation and illiteracy, and have extended the farce to online "universities" run just like businesses, in which "students" purchase "degrees." Nowhere is the act of learning emphasized in the marketing rhetoric of these schools, just the profits you'll make with degree in fist.

Such marketing strategies and the formula of
skills = degree = $$$ are symptomatic of the state of the current economy. Education has to adapt to the needs of the economy, but we must be careful not to lose a sense of a complete education. Not an education in the "useless" stuff like the general humanities, which is not useless at all when you consider how often it is wielded as a powerful tool of intimidation, to sort people based on perception of class, and basically, opportunity and exposure to privileged, "useless" education. Yet another topic, but just to say that obviously this should not be the sole function of education. :)

AG: Did I not ask you this already? Is Avital Ronell interviewed in this docu, about her book "Stupidity?" I think I mentioned that she goes back to the origins of "stupid" in "stupor" and "stuporous," as a nonverbal state of intense concentration, and also as a kind of space of openness, and constructive emptiness. Sounds wierd, but it is one of the coolest f'ing books she's written, besides "The Telephone Book." Oh yes she did, and it rocks. :)

Daniels, you are intelligent and well-educated. Surely you know that your angst is not justified by the state of education in this country. One must keep a sense of (historical) perspective. A hundred years ago how many children even went to school? How many graduated? How many went to college? By almost any metric, children's education has improved, and it continues to improve. There are factors that are not easily overcome and that will hold some children back from getting everything they can out of the education they are offered. It has occurred to me that the reason many teenagers and adults act so idiotic nowadays is not because they lack for anything, but because life has gotten too complicated; at least they can excel in refusing to think: being stupider as a refuge. Anyway, this discussion is way above my paygrade. Y'all fight it out while I take a little snooze elsewheres.

"Daniels, you are intelligent and well-educated. Surely you know that your angst is not justified by the state of education in this country."

I almost blew Fresca all over my monitor when I read this. The completely ignorant screwball attempting to inform a very intelligent educator about education? Daniels, you'll have to go serve on a committee somewhere I reckon, you know, get involved or something, otherwise your opinion is just plain wrong.

CF, you can insult me all you want because I think you're an idiot and have mental issues and I mostly ignore everything you comment on here, but you insult my pals and I'll rub that in your face every time you do it.

I said, and as everyone has noted I have been a woman of my word, that I would ignore your posts, refried. But this calls for a clarification: Exactly where in that sentence did I insult SDaniels?

And BTW, if as I suspect this is just a strategy of divide and conquer by brown-nosing, frankly, my dear refried, I don't give a hoot for such shabby tactics. I don't wish to buy anyone's good opinion by that means, and I don't respect anyone who plays those games.

And by the way, it would be interesting to know what motivated you to imply that I insulted Daniels. I doubt however that the truth on that subject will be told. And to be honest, since I won't know, then I don't care, and will move on. Fish are good at moving on. :)

CF, you're an idiot, everyone here knows it and they are very nice to you because they are very good people. But they know you're an idiot. If someone disagrees with your opinion you insult them. You insulted Daniels. I can't afford the time to teach you to read, but obviously you can't because the comment I made speaks for itself. Basically, you're attempting to tell Daniels she's smart, but only if she agrees with you. Idiotic.

You are not my dear friend, I think you are basically evil and a liar. Manipulative, completely so.

"I don't wish to buy anyone's good opinion by that means, and I don't respect anyone who plays those games."

Liar. Do you think I'm not friends with those you've emailed or otherwise contacted in here? Do you think we don't email each other?

"And BTW, if as I suspect this is just a strategy of divide and conquer by brown-nosing..."

Hey, that's your department, not mine. You are not a woman of your word, you are a liar and spend your entire day dreaming up ways to run this website, the comments, the ideology. You need help. I lose any friends in here for calling you what you are, so be it, but you're an idiot - you've run some pretty good people out of here that didn't want to deal with your crap and I'm sick of it.

Well said, Refried. All this goes to show what a poor businessman a journalist can be. Mr. H. would rather keep Cuddlefish on the site to support her freedom of speech rather than support the people who care about the Reader.

I, for one, have drastically reduced my presence on this site, largely because of her "crap."

For anyone to think that letting a manic-depressive run wild on the site in the name of free speech is ludicrous. I'd take Pistol Pete over her any day and he once called me a f*' K.

I already answered that question, it isn't my job to educate you. People don't agree with you all of the time, it doesn't mean they are stupid. Calling them smart and then insulting them by insisting that they can't be smart because they don't agree with you is insulting, and idiotic.

"Daniels, you are intelligent and well-educated."

Is she? Then why do you follow it up with this:

"Surely you know that your angst is not justified by the state of education in this country."

She sure as hell knows more about that than you do! The crap you type is so contrived, so playground-like, a sociology prof could teach a course on it.

I can hardly keep myself from laughing at your dishonesty. So I insulted Daniels by stating the obvious, that she is intelligent and well-educated. Had I merely stated, "Daniels, surely you know that your angst is not justified by the state of education in this country," would that have not insulted her? Of course not because what you are really saying is that the insult lies in my even daring to engage SDaniels in this discussion.

In that case, I do apologize for responding to her question, which I believed she meant honestly, and to which I responded honestly. I stand by what I said: When one considers the state of education from the time this country was founded until now, it seems hardly in doubt that our children, and more of our children, are better educated. I remember reading somewhere that a hundred years ago, less than one percent of the American population graduated from college. The last census data that I recall reading found that 75% of students graduating from high school attain at least some college education, and approximately 25% graduate with a degree.

Those are the facts. If they insult anyone, then I apologize for stating them. In fact, I retract my original answer, and prefer from now on to keep mum on the subject I apparently am too ignorant to discussion with my betters.

CF, why are you guessing what I meant? What part of what I wrote don't you understand? You act like an idiot, tell everyone what they need to believe, and berate them and call them names when they don't agree with you. You follow my comments around, attempt to gather support for your stupid ideologically diametrically opposed point of view, and win some sort of a prize. It isn't happening. No prize. No win. Just a lot of people who don't want to put up with your crap, and they leave. I don't care about your census data, I don't care about your convoluted notion of how the U.S. should be run, and my lips will never touch that kool-aid you drank. It's a little too late to turn this, or any other thing you have to say, into a meaningful discussion, because you've proven time and time again that you aren't interested in discussion.